BulkRegister.com, the second-largest domain name registrar, is expanding its focus to include corporations that own hundreds or thousands of domain names as well as ISPs and Web hosting companies that are its traditional customer base.

A wholesaler of domain names, BulkRegister.com already has attracted several large corporations, including Revlon, Universal Studios and Amway with its discounts for companies that transfer more than 50 names into the BulkRegister.com system.

"This is a rich market for us," says Tony Keyes, BulkRegister.com's CEO. "Corporations involved in consumer retail want to have their brand names represented on the Internet. And they have lots of names."

BulkRegister.com offers these companies registration fees that go as low as $8 per domain name, per year for the bulk transfer of names into the BulkRegister.com system. However, companies have to pay a $79 annual membership fee to use the BulkRegister.com service.

BulkRegister.com also offers 10-year and perpetual registrations for domain names, as well as dedicated account managers. Customers access the BulkRegister.com service via a Web-based interface that lets them manage and update their list of domain names themselves.

Amway cites simplicity

Amway switched 400 of its 3,500 domain names to BulkRegister.com about three months ago, says Elsie Morren, an associate patent paralegal for the Ada, Mich., company. Previously, the domain names were registered with Network Solutions, the No. 1 domain name registrar.

"We chose BulkRegister.com because of the simplicity of accessing all our activity on our account online," Morren says. "The automated registration service that BulkRegister.com offers is fast and very reliable, and you can't beat the price."

Morren says Amway plans to register most of its new domain names through BulkRegister.com from now on.

BulkRegister is planning a new suite of services for corporate customers that will be available early next year. The Identity Suite will include a toll-free telephone number, a matching domain name, an IP address, a Real Names identifier and a Web presence.

As a sign of the power of the Identity Suite, Keyes points to 1-800-flowers.com, a popular online gift site. "The value of this offering is that companies will be able to publish one identity on the Web," Keyes explains.

BulkRegister.com also plans to add a consulting service, trademark research and title insurance for domain names before the end of the year.

BulkRegister.com sells its services through a network of 9,000 resellers including ISPs, Web hosting companies and Web site designers. So far, the company has registered more than 1.7 million domain names.

This story, "Get your red-hot domain names here" was originally published by
Network World.